Tales of Aradia The Last Witch Volume (18 page)

Gunther stepped in between them and
said, "Why don't you just do yourself a huge favor by taking a shot
of your own pixie dust and fly on back to never land! I think Peter
Pan is getting tired of waiting for you!"

Tristan did not respond to that
instead he just silently looked Gunther right in the
eye.

After a few moments he finally
said, "It’s no surprise to me why they held you back two grades
Gunther because with an attitude and jokes like that...hell man you
would be an embarrassment to every single school in
Massachusetts!"

Gunther was stunned but even more
so when Tristan rushed on, "Hell I even feel sorry for the prisons
because God only knows how much their reputation is going to sink
once they get you! Do not even try to deny you are not going to
prison because we all know that that is definitely, where you are
going to go as soon as you get your high school diploma! In fact, I
would even not be surprised if every college in America would pay
the prisons to take you because they would not want you anywhere
near their campuses!"

Gunther's eyes bulged with
rage.

Aradia, even though she knew she
should not be adding fuel to the fire, nevertheless said, "Yeah
because chances are the moment he would set foot on their campuses
the IQ's in the area would sink like the Titanic!"

Bane, Gunther, and the rest of
their crew advanced towards Tristan and Aradia angrily.

Two huge guys, however, appeared
from out of nowhere, and stepped in between them.

Bane scoffed at the interlopers and
said, "You mean to take us on?"

However, Tristan answered and
scoffed back at him. "Hell no I know better than to pick a fight in
front of a teacher!"

"Teacher?" Bane blanched in
addition to the rest of his gang members.

As if it were a magic spell, the
entire gang stopped in their tracks, and stood perfectly still.
None of them daring to move or breathe.

"Yeah," Tristan said taking his arm
and placing on one of the bulky teacher's shoulders, "This is Mr.
Doyle and Mr. Clyde they are the new PE teachers."

"And," Tristan added in a lowered
whisper, "Members of my court!"

That final statement of Tristan's
caused Bane and his gang to all turn on their heels, and run off.
Aradia, however, stood stunned not knowing if Tristan had been
bluffing.

She realized the truth when one of
them turned to Tristan and asked, "Are you alright your
highness?"

Tristan nodded and said, "Indeed
thank you for your help gentlemen."

They both nodded and Tristan waved
them away with his hand saying, "Now I do believe you two have a
staff meeting to get to so hurry along. It makes one heck of a bad
impression to be late to anything on your first day on the
job."

The two teachers then indeed left.
After Aradia stared a while at their retreating backs she turned to
look at Tristan.

"What?" he asked her stunned
expression.

"How..?" Aradia began.

Tristan groaned and said, "Hasn’t
anyone told you what I am?"

"I think Roy did once..." Aradia
said as she struggled to remember. "He said you are neither a
vampire nor werewolf."

"Thank god," Tristan
muttered.

"So what are you?" Aradia
asked.

"I am a fae," he
replied.

"Huh?" Aradia was now completely
confused.

He groaned as if what he was trying
to say was extremely painful. "I am a fairy."

"You're a what?" Aradia asked
again.

"A fairy!" this time his answer was
louder but he was quick to add in a quick hushed whisper, "And if
you even think about laughing I will rip out your vocal chords and
floss with them!"

"Hence the pixie joke..." Aradia
said nodding and finally understanding.

Once again, however, her face grew
puzzled as she asked, "But the teachers they called you 'your
highness'..."

"That's because I happen to be the
crown prince of the seelie fae court!" Tristan said
proudly.

"So you're a fairy prince?" Aradia
asked.

Tristan narrowed his eyes, and
began to look like Aradia as if he was about to commit a
murder.

Aradia quickly held up her hands as
a sign of peace and said, "Sorry Tristan I meant no disrespect but
I could not resist. Anyway thanks for helping me."

Tristan shrugged and Aradia
supposed that was his way of saying, "No problem."

However, she still could not help
but ask him, "Why did you help me though? I thought you hated
me."

Tristan chuckled at that and said,
"I don't hate you."

"But then why..."

Tristan cut her off by guessing
what her question was going to be and saying, "Why do I tease
you?"

Again, he just shrugged his
shoulders. "I don't know why I do it Aradia, but it's nothing
personal because I tease everyone. You can call it a sign of
insecurity, a sign of spite, or even of future sociopathic
tendencies. I just really enjoy teasing people."

He then smiled wickedly, which
added a bit more sincerity to the future sociopath tendencies
theory.

"It is mean you know," Aradia
stated.

Tristan, however, argued casually,
"That is kind of the point."

"So wait? You like being mean..."
Aradia began.

"The world is not black and white
Aradia," Tristan stated in an impatient voice. "Not the human world
and certainly not ours. Sometimes things are the way they are, and
we can't do anything about it except accept it!"

Aradia was silent after this and
she figured that in addition to prejudice between the hidden races
this was going to be another issue she was going to have to address
in the future.

At this current moment, however,
she figured that she had better change the subject and so she did
by asking, "So Tristan is there something you want?"

"Yes as a matter of fact," said
Tristan, "A date with you this Saturday."

Aradia's mouth dropped wide
open.

After a few moments of shocked
silence, she finally managed to sputter, "What?"

"You heard me," Tristan replied
sounding as cold and as indifferent as a giant squid.

"But why?" Aradia asked
him.

"Hey," Tristan explained irritably.
"If Roy and Dax can ask you out I can too okay? So do we have a
date or what?"

"Or what," Aradia muttered under
her breath.

"Excuse me?" Tristan asked as he
looked at her incredulously.

At this point, not only did Aradia
want to say no, but also to give him a swift kick in the
shins.

However, as she opened her mouth to
refuse him Tristan cut her off. "Keep in mind if you refuse then I
will have no choice but to tell Roy what you and Dax were doing on
his balcony on your date!"

Aradia went white as she sputtered,
"What are you talking about? We weren't doing anything, and even if
we were Roy would never believe you over me."

Tristan shrugged and said, "True
but personally I think he would believe his own eyes over either of
us."

"Huh?" Aradia asked.

Tristan then reached into his
pocket, and with an extreme flourish of his hand brandished some
photos in front of Aradia's face. There were of Aradia and Dax in a
steamy kiss with Dax holding her on the balcony, and her leaning
her head against his shoulders with his arm around her waist.
Aradia grabbed the photos, panic already shooting through her body
like jolts of pain.

"Where..." she sputtered at
Tristan, "Where did you get...?”

"It doesn't matter," Tristan, said
shrugging, "What does is what you are going to do about
it?"

Aradia gripped the photos tightly
in her hand.

"This is blackmail!" she said
angrily to him.

"Duh!" Tristan replied with yet
another indifferent shrug of his shoulders.

She knew it would be wrong, but
right now Aradia was seriously contemplating setting Tristan on
fire or at the very least staying true to her witch heritage by
turning him into a toad.

If Tristan noticed her anger, he
gave no hint of it.

He continued by asking her yet
again, "So do we have a date or what?"

Aradia thought fast. She would
sooner die than go near this weasel let alone go on a date with
him. On the other hand, she could not possibly let Roy see these
photos. Not just for her sake, but Roy's as well. If he were to see
them, not only would he be angry, but he would be heart-broken as
well! It was no secret that his mother had abandoned him, and to
see another woman betray him would make feel him betrayed. Most of
all, if he did not kill Dax in a fit of rage he would probably
contemplate doing something worse to himself. Aradia swallowed hard
as she stared at Tristan, but he was beginning to look like he was
growing restless.

Frantically, she gave him the
answer he obviously desired. "Yes, Tristan I will go out with
you."

He grinned victoriously making
Aradia feel like hitting him with a rock.

"Wonderful," he said, "So when can
I pick you up?"

"How about we met up somewhere
instead?" Aradia suggested as an idea began to form in her
mind.

Tristan shrugged, indifferent as
always, and said, "Okay. Where?"

"Dead Horse Beach," said Aradia
without missing a beat, "Be there at 12pm."

He nodded and without so much as a
'goodbye' or 'see you later' he turned on his heel and left. Aradia
waited until he was a good distance away for her to dive into her
backpack, pull out her cell phone, call Dax and say, "Hey Dax are
you busy this weekend? No? Then wait until you hear what I got
planned!"

Chapter Eight

Although Aradia thought that she
could handle anything she had to admit planning a beach trip
involving vampires, werewolves, fae, and humans all clumped
together as a peaceful hang out to promote amelioration in the
hidden race was pushing her luck. Aradia shook her head banishing
her thoughts, and feelings of doubt. She knew that this was the
only thing she could have done to handle all her
problems.

The problems of handling her date
with Tristan, and addressing the issue of intolerance amongst the
hidden races. Aradia had promised herself that the prejudice issue
was something she needed to do something about. If she gave, a
speech or something there was no guarantee that it would accomplish
anything so Aradia had decided that the only way something could be
done was through action. What greater action is there, Aradia
thought, then having fun? Still she had to admit that what she was
doing was risky, and just because it was good intentioned did not
mean that all would go smoothly.

However, Aradia realized that it
was too late to turn back now as she and Dax parked in front of the
sand dunes. Dax noticed how tense Aradia was, and frankly, he could
not blame her. Although he knew of Aradia's plan, and had even
helped her to plan it out; it still had not stopped Dax from
calling her crazy the entire time they were preparing.

"Are you sure about this?" Dax
finally asked her as he slowly reached out, and held her
hand.

Aradia had been looking out the
window, but at Dax's touch, she swung around to look at
him.

She shrugged and said, "I don't
have much of a choice Dax. I got to do this to prevent Tristan from
giving Roy the photos."

She turned to look back at the
seaside horizon. "And besides this whole 'separate but equal' crap
that is going on amongst the hidden race is totally bogus! What
better way to do something about it then throwing a
party?"

Dax shrugged, looking skeptical.
"Aradia you should not put so much faith in this little 'get
together.' You think you are the only one who has tried to change
things? Lots of people have tried, and they have all
failed."

"Yeah well," said Aradia, "there is
a difference between the people who have failed and me."

"Oh? And what is that?" Dax asked
while raising an eyebrow.

Aradia smiled. "And as the last
witch I am known to be persistent as hell in getting what I
want."

"And you think you can really do
all this?" asked Dax.

"Well,” said Aradia as she got out
of the car and grinned back at Dax wickedly. "There is a reason
that when you compare the words bitch, and witch there is only one
letter missing."

Dax chuckled, and got out of the
car as well. After hauling his stuff out of the backseat, he stood
by the hood and took off his shirt. The moment Aradia got a whiff
of his heavily sun screened body, she turned to look at him and her
heart stopped. Dax's pale skinned chest glowed as luminescent as
the stars in the night sky. His chest was skinny, but his muscular
arms were long and strong as perfect as an Olympian god. His wavy
blonde glistened in the sun and his black eyes were perfectly
halfway shadowed under his long black lashes. His indifferent
facial expression with his strong cheekbones, chin, and dimple in
his mouth were as correctly proportioned as a sculpture that it
reminded Aradia of the story of Pygmalion. When a man fell in love
with the most beautiful and perfect statue of them all and as
reward the goddess of love brought it to life. Staring at Dax now,
Aradia was so swept up in her infatuation that even she dreamily
wondered if he had been given to her as a reward.